Lunch

Author's Note: I don't picture this as an ideal future for Ressler, but a possible one. For Febressuary 2022.

Let me know what you think.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Don Ressler walked through the ivy league campus toward the cafe where they always met. He'd only been coming here for the last 2 years to meet her; before that it was another ivy league campus in another city. Agnes Keen had brains to spare and was working on her PhD in Economics with a focus on Financing Terrorism. She was Liz's daughter but had become his de facto niece over the years and he'd made the trip to her campus, this one in Connecticut and the last one in Boston, about once a month to have lunch and visit with her. It was a ritual of sorts interrupted or postponed rarely over the years.

He walked into the cafe and saw her sitting at the back, her laptop open and eyes focused intently on the screen. It was in moments like this that he saw Liz or Tom in her; when she truly was the sum of her parts. Today it was more Tom than Liz; Agnes was always more Tom when she had that intense look on her face.

Ressler walked up to the table and pulled out a chair, simultaneously putting a potted cactus on the table next to her.

"I have kept a ficus alive," Agnes huffed as she smiled and reached for the cactus.

"I think it's Teddy that is keeping that alive and not you," Ressler said as he sat and smiled at her. Agnes' roommate Teddy was doing his MA in Environmental Law and had a green thumb. Agnes did not.

"I provide it with conversation and love," Agnes smiled at him as as she placed down the plant. "He just takes care of it's basic needs like food and water. My care for the ficus is on a higher plane of existence."

"Yeah, let's see if that higher plane keeps it alive when Teddy visits his family next," Ressler chuckled as the waitress arrived at their table. Agnes ordered a salad and he a sandwich before she left and Agnes talked with him for another 10 minutes about a project she was working on before she turned her attention toward him.

"How are you feeling about your decision?" Agnes asked him, worried.

"It's still six months away," he smiled at her as he crossed one leg over the other.

"Yeah, but does the decision to retire feel good?" Agnes asked him with raised eyebrows.

"I'm not really retiring," Ressler said. "I've already agreed to consult for secret service and…"

"But the FBI…." Agnes smiled at him. "The end of an era, Don."

He smiled at her. His hair and goatee got a little greyer as the years went on. "Honestly, it feels a little ridiculous retiring with two twelve year olds at home still," Don chuckled. "But after that last injury Tara insisted that I get a safer job."

"And she was right," Agnes nodded. "We want you around for a long time."

Ressler smiled and nodded.

"How are Viv and Connor?" Agnes asked.

"On the cusp of teenager-hood and driving us nuts," Ressler chuckled. "Viv hates every piece of clothing she owns and Connor is trying to slim down and we keep telling him he'll hit a growth spurt and everything will spread out but…"

Agnes smiled. She had spent some time with Don's kids over the years and come to love the twins like cousins. "Tara and you still need me to come down for the first week of summer so you can go away?" Agnes asked.

"You can still do it?" Ressler asked.

"So you and Tara can go on a romantic trip together to celebrate your retirement? Uh, yeah Don, I think I can watch Viv and Connor for a few days and get them to overnight camp," Agnes smirked. "Don't worry, I can't keep a plant alive, but I can keep your kids alive for three days and get them safely to camp. I do know how to order take-out and make eggs."

He chuckled and nodded.

"Tara still doesn't know I've booked it yet, so keep it quiet for another couple months, okay?" Ressler asked with a smirk.

"My lips are sealed," Agnes chuckled. "And I am going to enjoy having your entire house to myself and your pool for the rest of the week by myself."

"And there it is," he snickered.

"I'm a lowly PhD student," Agnes said dramatically. "Access to a pool in the heat of summer is my version of a Caribbean vacation."

"You bringing Phil?" Ressler asked, chuckling, knowing she'd been seeing him for a couple of months now. Also knowing that Agnes had a trust fund that would make any PhD student jealous but that no one would ever know it. She lived frugally and had given a lot of it away to charity over the years.

Agnes scrunched up her face.

"Another one bites the dust huh?" Ressler asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He and I disagreed about global markets too often and it didn't have a future," Agnes explained.

"You know, there's no perfect person for anyone," Ressler said.

"You and Tara seem pretty perfect," Agnes crossed her arms over her chest.

"That's because she makes me look good," he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Were you and mom perfect too?" Agnes asked.

He chuckled. "God, no. But we were fireworks."

Her smile grew.

"I think I need more explanation," Agnes said. She and Don had talked about her mom occasionally over the years; but she rarely asked about them as a couple.

"Your mom and I disagreed on a lot of things, but we were always there for each other, supporting each other even if we disagreed," Ressler said nostalgically. "We were hardly perfect for each other but it worked, for us, at least."

"Do you think, if she hadn't died, you two would have stayed together?" Agnes asked.

"I'd like to think we would have," Ressler said thoughtfully. "But your mom was a live wire so I couldn't say for sure. I hope we would have."

Agnes assessed him for a moment and smiled.

"Mom may have been 'a live wire'" she smirked, quoting him. "But she was a live wire that loved you very much, so she would have done anything to stay with you."

He gave her a soft smile and a slight nod.

"So, I need to not be so picky?" Agnes asked him, knowing it was a topic they couldn't and shouldn't stay on for long or it would just bring down his visit. She looked forward to them and the effort he put in to visit her, coming distances to see her, bringing her some trinket or plant or food item, and then listening to her talk about things she was sure he felt were boring but he would smile and nod.

In another life, he would have been her father or step-father, likely her dad. But, in this life, he was her Don. Her sort-of uncle, with a wife and twins who lived in a house in the suburbs, who coached little league and every week brought his wife flowers on a random night because he was a romantic at heart. He was a decorated FBI agent and former addict that had hit bottom and pulled his life together even better than it was before. He was the closest to family she had besides Harold and Charlene.

She knew that one day, when Harold and Charlene were gone, Don and Tara would be the ones she would spend Christmas with, the ones who would come to the hospital when she had a sick child; the family that would be there to support her with their wisdom and experience. They were her people and she loved them for being that.

"I think you are an amazing young woman and you have every right to be picky and find the right guy, not just any guy," he smiled at her. "You deserve fireworks and live wires and everything Agnes."

She smiled back; her uncle Don always knew what to say.

The end.